Chicago-area small businesses say they want to be more tech-savvy

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One in 4 Chicago small businesses say they need help finding skilled workers. Klerigi, a technology management consulting firm moved its headquarters from New York to Chicago to pluck from the second city's pool of tech talent.

One in 4 Chicago small businesses say they need help finding skilled workers. Klerigi, a technology management consulting firm moved its headquarters from New York to Chicago to pluck from the second city's pool of tech talent.

(StockRocket / Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Ally MarottiBlue Sky Innovation

Small businesses in Chicago place a high value on using technology — and they're looking for more ways to make sure they're using it right.

Nearly half of the 574 small businesses that responded to a survey conducted by the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce and Quinlan School of Business at Loyola University said they would benefit from additional training on how to use technology.

“If you don’t have good tech tools and your workers are mired in meaningless data entry because you are not using good tools, they are out the door,” said Katie Fitzpatrick, executive director of programs at the Chamber of Commerce.

The Small Business Survey, set to be released Tuesday at an event at Quinlan, was the Chamber of Commerce’s second annual look at the face of small business in the city. Responses came from Cook, DeKalb, DuPage, Kane, McHenry, Lake and Will counties in Illinois, with a few outliers. The data is used to determine what programming the Chamber should provide throughout the year, Fitzpatrick said.

The survey defined small businesses as having 500 employees or less, though nearly half the respondents had less than five employees. But 76 percent of those surveyed, up from 71 percent last year, said they were poised to grow in the next year.

There were nearly 239,000 businesses with less than 500 employees in the Chicago metro area in 2013, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, with a multitude of industries represented. That count includes Cook, DuPage, Will, Kendall, Grundy, Kane, DeKalb, Lake and McHenry counties in Illinois; Lake, Porter, Jasper and Newton counties in Indiana; and Kenosha County in Wisconsin.

The survey represented more than 14 industries, with the largest group of respondents, nearly one in four, identifying as professional and business services.

Technology use fell second on the ranking of topics in which respondents said they need more training. Fifty-eight percent said they needed help with conducting market research.

These companies want to make sure they are keeping up, said Tom Gimbel, CEO and founder of Chicago-based recruiting and staffing firm LaSalle Network. Ongoing development is key to staying competitive.

“If you are not training and developing your people, two things will happen,” he said. “Your customers won’t get the service or product they need, or the people will leave and go someplace they can get it.”

Another challenge Chicago’s small businesses face: finding skilled workers. One in four companies said they need help in that arena. Klerigi Group, a technology management consulting firm that moved its headquarters to Chicago from New York last year, is one of them.

“That has been one of our biggest challenges,” said Adriana Bohorquez, business development and client relationship lead at Klerigi. That is one of the reasons Klerigi moved to Chicago — to pluck from its pool of tech talent.

Bohorquez said the company has 11 full-time employees and is looking to add up to five this year with the help of a local recruiter.

“We haven’t found what we are looking for yet,” she said. “But we know they are there.”